Shot Me Down
by EbonyStorm
Summary: NoojPaine songfic. A little while after the Crimson Squad tragedy, Paine reflects on her relationship with Nooj...
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER: None of the Square Enix characters belong to me sniff but this story does so nooooo copying!!!

**SHOT ME DOWN**

_One off songfic, written while listening to Nancy Sinatra's 'Bang Bang' on repeat for two hours... the song's on the KILL BILL soundtrack! This is the improved version, and the other two chapters are the short version and the original. Enjoy! (Read and Review!)_

Nooj- a hero, a legendary warrior among the ranks of the crusaders, proud and brave, but also cold and uncaring. This was how people knew him. I'd known him since childhood, when we would play in front of the Mi'ihen Highroad travel agency, pretending to be opponents in the Machina War of a thousand years past. He was always one of the darkly dressed soldiers of Bevelle, marching around with a broken down machina weapon that his dead father- a warrior monk- had left him. I always pretended to be a defender of Zanarkand, wearing a white uniform that my crusader mother had apparently made for me before she died fighting Sin. He would chase me along the road, playing a game of cat and mouse, and though I would outsmart him for as long as I could, hiding in this place and that, he would always corner me, drive me back into the little curve of land that jutted out into the sea, just in front of the agency.

**I was five and he was six**

**We rode on horses made of sticks**

**He wore black and I wore white**

**He would always win the fight**

We grew up this way, always playing together, growing up side by side as close friends for ten years. And all that time, he was strong, brave, a true friend to me, never letting anything hurt me. At sixteen, he joined the crusaders. I thought this would be good for him, it would give him a purpose in life, to fight for Spira's safety.

For a three months, he was perfectly happy, but then... he was half crushed one day, fighting Sin. Instead of letting him die, the crusader captains elected to have machina implanted in his body, in order that a brave and strong fighter not be wasted. I thought he would be happy that they thought so highly of him, that he would be glad at having a second chance, where other crusaders had been killed by Sin in that fateful operation.

When he was healed, he rejoined the fighting corps of the crusaders. He seemed to have a new zest for battle, always jumping in to the fray, attacking the fiends head on, never running no matter how dangerous the fighting seemed. He was seen as reckless by some... but courageous and noble by everyone else. I, too, admired him for this courage, and in time, my feelings of friendship turned to something else, something more than just admiration... it took a while, but in the end I realised that I loved him. I _needed_ to be close to him. I took up a job as a training recorder for the crusaders, just so I could stay in the same camp as Nooj. I knew that he was being trained for something special... so I hoped the captains would ask me to record him for it.

My wish was answered. One evening, Captain Lucil asked me to record Nooj's actions on a night when he was patrolling the Mi'ihen Highroad. I knew that I had to tell him how I felt. I couldn't bear to go on loving him in secret, it was painful to keep wondering whether he felt the same about me, and never actually _know._ So I waited until the other crusaders had taken their own pathways down the highroad, and we were left alone, in front of the agency. I switched off my spherecorder, and turned to him.

"Nooj," I said in a hushed voice.

"Yeah?" he replied, distracted.

"I... I don't how to say this, but..."

He looked at me, and the soft look in his eyes told me that he already know what I was going to say. I struggled to say the words, but I managed to say, in a tiny whisper;

"I... love... you..."

His reply wasn't given in words. He took my left hand and kissed me gently. I felt lifted, contented suddenly as he held me so strongly. When he released me, he smiled and said:

"You know we can't tell anyone."

"I know," I replied, "recorders and crusaders aren't supposed to fraternise..."

"We can keep it a secret," he whispered, holding me close, "we can meet here, when I'm off duty, or when I'm patrolling..."

I nodded enthusiastically. From that moment on, our secret romance would be tempestuous, a raging storm of passion and anger, always solved with a kiss or a threat from one of us to finish with the other. We would escape to the agency as often as possible, take a room there so we could be alone. In this room, we hated, loved, and hated each other again and again. He would never let me get close to him, never let me know who or what he truly was. I was weak, and though I shouted and screamed, I would never say what I truly thought, I was so afraid of losing him.

We stayed together like this for one and a half years, until Nooj was told that he was to be tested for admission to the soon-to-be-created Crimson Squad, an elite fighting force made up of the best fighters in crusaders. After receiving that news, he became even colder and more self obsessed that ever.

We had one final argument in our secret room at the agency, and it ended with him marching out and me chasing after him. It was sunset, and the sinking sun seemed to tell me that the sun had set for us, as well.

I grabbed him by the arm as he stood in front of the agency, obviously waiting for the apology that I usually gave- strictly for fear of losing him. As I grabbed him, he turned and hissed- violent as the shot of a gun:

"Get away from me, Paine! I never want to see your pathetic face again!" and he walked away, leaving me cold and alone, lying on the rain-soaked grass...

**Bang bang, he shot me down**

**Bang bang, I hit the ground**

**Bang bang, that awful sound**

**Bang bang, my baby shot me down**

The next day, new recruits were brought in for training for the Crimson Squad. The two that were to be recorded by me were called Baralai and Gippal. To my dismay, Nooj was also on the team. During the training missions, he and I acted as if we had never met, as if we had never even heard each other's names, let alone been together for one and half years. All that time, I still couldn't get over him. I still loved him, I couldn't deny that. But the other two could never know, and so, when they became friends with me _and_ Nooj, I had to pretend to get along with Nooj, too. It was awkward, and it was made worse by the way I worried over him. I still couldn't figure out what was keeping him so cold, so distant from me and everyone else. For five months, I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. But a conversation I overhead one night in the camp one night solved that puzzle for me...

It was a night when the guys were out patrolling, and I was left to wander the camp on my own. I sat down near the chocobo shack, listening to the big yellow birds as they chirped happily, munching through bags of gysahl greens. Suddenly, two voices came in strong and clear from the tent next to me, and what I heard sent a bullet through my heart.

"Nooj _is_ rather eccentric... but he has a reason to be," one voice said. I recognised the person as Elma, a chocobo knight in charge of protocol at the camp.

"But what's wrong with him?" the a man asked. His name was Yaibal, as I recalled.

"I thought you woulda' known by now," Elma replied, "haven't you heard the nickname he's been given?"

"No."

"The other candidates are calling him 'Deathseeker.' Apparently the reason he's so reckless in battle is because he wants to _die_. He has done for a while, but no one realised until now."

"Oh..." Yaibal seemed shocked. So was I. Nooj...a_ Deathseeker?_ I didn't want to believe it. Not Nooj, no, not _my_ Nooj. Yes, he was still _my_ Nooj, and _my_ Nooj didn't want to die. He was brave, strong, a warrior, a fighter, always using his strength to stay alive...

No. I couldn't deny it. Everything- his morbid attitude, his preoccupation with himself, his cold shell that he put around himself to keep me away from his heart... it all slipped into place. He had wanted to die... and perhaps he hadn't wanted me to get close, so that he wouldn't be too afraid of hurting me to kill himself. _Why didn't he just tell me..._ I decided to confront him with it, I had to, I had to help him find another way to be happy.

I got my chance the next day, when the teams were being recorded on a training mission. Powerful fiends were sent in to test the candidates strength, but they were much to hard to defeat. Nooj and the other two were soon out of ammo and surrounded by the monsters. It was then that I realised that Elma had been telling the truth. As a large Dual Horn edged closer to the group, Nooj calmly walked up to it, leaving his weapon behind.

I knew then that he was truly suicidal, and I could see that he wanted to give himself up to the fiend and allow it to finish him. I, on the other hand, couldn't let that happen. I still loved him, and the thought of him dying was too much to bear. Just as the fiend stormed in for an attack, I blasted it with an ice spell, and it burst into a storm of pyreflies. Nooj turned to me, rage stamped on his face.

"How dare you!" he shouted at me.

"Nooj..." I said, unsure of myself, "rumour has it... that you're looking for a place to die. You were ready to give up back there, ready to die?"

"You serious?" Gippal suddenly interrupted.

"It's harder than it looks," was all Nooj said.

"Why?" Baralai asked. They obviously couldn't believe what they were hearing... but realising, like I did, that it made perfect sense. It was uncomfortable for us to see him like this, weak in the aftermath of a failed suicide. He turned away from us, avoiding any and all eye contact with me, especially.

"It's my life to throw away," he said, then he turned to walk back to camp.

"Hey!" Gippal shouted after him, but he was already gone.

A few days later, I was walking by the Mi'ihen agency, when I him standing in front of it, in the place where we had finally parted. He glared at me as I walked near him, and I hid my face from his eyes. Just as I was about to enter the agency, he shouted;

"You had NO RIGHT!"

I turned. His eyes were fiery with anger, a dark storm growing in his features. I hung my head, not wanting to have the fight I knew was coming. But I knew he wouldn't let it go, so I walked to him.

"I was just trying to help," I said quietly.

"Help _who_, exactly?" Nooj shouted at me. His fist was clenched so tight, and I feared that it might come into contact with my face any minute.

"You!" I replied.

"Don't lie to me!" he shouted, "I know you! You're still so weak, like you were when we together, so afraid to 'lose me' as you put it, because you're too weak to stand on your own. Just like when we were kids, and you could never run for very long, I'd always catch up on you in the end, because you were weak. Weak, weak WEAK!"

"Nooj, please..." I whispered weakly.

"_WEAK_," he repeated. He stared at me coldly as I lifted my eyes to his, and he smirked, seeming to enjoy my tears and misery. He must have been enjoying, because he laughed in my face. His smile was evil, and not the smile that used to light up whenever I met him here, five months ago...

"Yes, weak," he said again, "and I beat you down so easily because of that. So _easily_. You could never stand up to me, I could always shoot you down like a crusader fighting a baby chocobo..."

I collapsed in tears on the floor as he walked away. The sun sank as I lay there, and once again I was left, cold and alone, on the grass in front of the agency.

**Seasons came and changed the time**

**When I grew up I called him mine**

**He would always laugh and say**

**Remember when we used to play**

****

**Bang bang, I shot you down**

**Bang bang, you hit the ground**

**Bang bang, that awful sound**

**Bang bang, I used to shoot you down**

Three weeks later, the Crimson Squad was destroyed. Betrayed by Maester Kinoc, the candidates killed each other in fits of madness, caused, as far as we could tell, by the pyreflies that swirled in thick clouds in the cave where the selection exercise was held. Only Nooj, Baralai, Gippal and I escaped the cave... and then we had to outrun the guns of the warrior monks. The monks turned their guns on me when I warned the guys of their intent, and I had to run, run like the wind across the site of Operation Mi'ihen, where bodies littered the ground, crushed and mutilated by Sin's horrific power. I was terrified that I would find people I knew lying on the wet sand. I ran and ran, past the dancing summoner, past more clouds of pyreflies that rose out of the dead crusaders lying around her.

I ran and ran, along the Mushroom Rock Road, able to avoid the few monks that stayed behind after the operation. I ran along the Highroad, until I saw, to my relief, the guys standing in front of the agency, bruised, batter and bloodstained, but _alive_.

"Guys!" I shouted happily as I ran up to them. I saw Nooj, and I stopped, feeling guilty as I looked into his eyes.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said brusquely.

"You're not mad?" I asked.

"Why would I be?"

"I stopped you from dying."

He laughed.

"You can owe me one," he said.

"Why did you follow us?" Baralai asked.

"I want to know... what it was you saw back there," I answered him.

"Problem is, we don't know," Gippal spoke up, "but we'll find out one of these days, then we'll tell you."

"Well, the Maester not going to be pleased when he finds out we're still alive," Nooj said suddenly, in a gruff, commanding tone.

"Think we should split up?" Gippal asked. Baralai nodded. Nooj turned to me and pointed to my spherecorder, which I'd turned on so I could record whatever they said about their experience in the cave.

"Your work's done," he said, reaching over to the power button, "why are you still recording?" I gasped as his hand brushed my skin. It felt so... _cold_, as if it wasn't really Nooj, but a metallic shell of him. I shivered as he took his hand away.

"Let's rest for an hour at the agency," Baralai suggested, and we all went to lie down for a while. I noticed with a pang that the room we ended up sharing was the one that had always been reserved for Nooj and I. Memories flooded back to me as I lay on the bed, and I closed my eyes so I couldn't see the sleeping figure of Nooj on the chair nearby. I knew that soon he would be lost to me, hidden in a huge world, and I could never see his face, or hear his voice, ever again, or for as long as Yevon held a grudge.

**Now he's gone and I don't know why**

**Until this day, sometimes I cry**

**He didn't even say goodbye**

**He didn't take the time to lie**

An hour later, I was filming the guys again, determined to get a last memento of my friends. I watched as Nooj and the other two decided which directions to take, and I recorded them as they waved goodbye in the golden light of the highroad sunset. Unable to see him go, I turned my camera to follow Gippal and Baralai.

A gunshot rattled the air, Baralai fell forward, blood pouring from his back. Gippal spun round to find the attacker, only to have a bullet embedded in his stomach. Horrified, I dropped the camera and turned to find the assailant. I saw... _Nooj_, standing there with his gun pointed at the twitching body of Baralai.

"Nooj!" I gasped.

"I said your work's done!" he shouted.

He turned, pointed his gun in a fatal aim at my chest... squeezed the trigger... and...

**Bang bang, he shot me down**

**Bang bang, I hit the ground**

**Bang bang, that awful sound**

**Bang bang, my baby shot me down...**

Once again, he left me, cold and alone, on the wet grass in front of the agency, walking away from my torn and bleeding heart... as the sun sank below the horizon for the last time.


	2. Short Version

**SHOT ME DOWN: SHORT VERSION**

Nooj and I were friends since childhood. We used to play together outside the Mi'ihen Highroad travel agency, pretending we were fighting in the Machina War of a thousand years past, he as a darkly uniformed soldier of Bevelle, I as a white uniformed defender of Zanarkand. I tried to turn the tables, to make sure that Bevelle lost, but I was always cornered, driven back into the little piece of land in front of the agency, that jutted into the ruin-filled sea. He would pretend to shoot me, to kill the weak summoner.

_**I was five and he was six**_

_**We rode on horses made of sticks**_

_**He wore black and I wore white**_

_**He would always win the fight**_

At sixteen, he joined the crusaders. He was happy there, until he fought in a huge battle against Sin. He was half crushed, and would have died, unless the Yevon clergy had not permitted the crusaders to implant machina inside his body, to keep him alive beyond his time. I was so happy that he had been given a second chance in the crusaders, that the captains thought highly enough of him to pay for such expensive treatment.

He healed, and rejoined the fighting corps of the crusaders. It was then that I joined as a training recorder. Being close to Nooj, I could see that he was noble, brave and strong, not just the overactive child I had known. I quickly fell in love with him. I told him one evening, just as the sun set on the sea. We reached the front of the agency, and I simply said '_I love you_.' To my surprise, his reply was not a laugh or a grunt, but a kiss. From that first sign continued one and a half years of passion and rage, known only to us two, as relationships between recorders and crusaders were forbidden for conduct reasons. We would always meet in front of the agency, and just sit talking, kissing, watching the sun set into the ocean.

But we had many problems. I quickly grew tired of his constant morbidity, his way of keeping me out of his heart, not telling me what was ever bothering him or what he really felt. I hated him for being so cold. We argued, screamed about it, and I threatened to walk out many times, but I would always come back, weak and desperate to hold on to him. On the night when he received an admission to train for a newly created elite squadron- the 'Crimson Squad'- that he became completely self obsessed. We had our last screaming match outside the agency, and then we were finished. He threw an insult at me and told me that he '_didn't want to see my pathetic face again_.' He walked off, and left me alone, lying in tears on the cold, wet grass.

_**Bang bang, he shot me down**_

_**Bang bang, I hit the ground**_

_**Bang bang, that awful sound**_

_**Bang bang, my baby shot me down**_

From then on, I had to pretend that nothing had ever happened between us. I made friends with the other guys on Nooj's training team, and as I was assigned as recorder to their team, I had to act completely normal around him.

All the time when he was training for the squad, he was always noted for his bravery in battle, the way he would never run away, no matter what the challenge, no matter how powerful or dangerous the fiend. Some called him reckless, others called him courageous. I wasn't sure, until one night I heard a conversation between a chocobo knight, lieutenant Elma, talking with a recruit called Yaibal. She said... that Nooj was suicidal, a '_Deathseeker_,' as they were called. Ever since the machina had been put in his body, he felt like he was alive beyond his time, only _half_-human, not entirely real. He never ran away from battle because... he hoped he wouldn't have to return from it alive. I didn't want to believe it, but I knew it made perfect sense. And I also knew the reason for his coldness when we were together...

I confronted him about it the next day, when I was recording a training mission He stepped out in front of a fiend without a weapon... I still loved him. I couldn't let him die. I killed the fiend myself, only to get shouted at. When I saw him at sunset in front of the Mi'ihen agency, he shouted at me again, insulted me, brought out all of the issues that were unresolved in me from our relationship. He laughed at me and told me I was weak, that- just like he could catch me easily as a child- he could shoot me down now, I was so weak, so dependant. Once again, he walked away, leaving me crying, alone, on the cold, wet grass.

_**Seasons came and changed the time**_

_**When I grew up I called him mine**_

_**He would always laugh and say**_

_**Remember when we used to play**_

_**Bang bang, I shot you down**_

_**Bang bang, you hit the ground**_

_**Bang bang, that awful sound**_

_**Bang bang, I used to shoot you down**_

Then the Crimson Squad was destroyed, betrayed by Maester Kinoc. Gippal, Nooj and Baralai were chased by warrior monks, until they reached the Mi'ihen Highroad, and there I met up with them in front of the agency. After discussing what to do, it was decided that Yevon would not rest until were dead, and that we would be harder to track if we split up. He never spoke to me once, didn't even wave goodbye as he left.

_**Now he's gone and I don't know**_

_**Until this day, sometimes I cry**_

_**He didn't even say goodbye**_

_**Didn't take the time to lie**_

At sunset, he started to walk away from us. I followed Gippal and Baralai as they went in the other direction. A gun shot suddenly rattled the air and Baralai fell to the floor with blood pouring from his back. Gippal turned round only to have bullet buried in his stomach. I, too, turned, and saw Nooj pointing his gun at their twitching bodies. I gasped, and he turned his gun in a deadly aim at my chest... he squeezed the trigger... and...

_**Bang bang, he shot me down**_

_**Bang bang, I hit the ground**_

_**Bang bang, that awful song**_

**_Bang bang, my baby shot me down..._**


	3. Original Version

**PAINE SONGFIC**

**Song: Nancy Sinatra- _Bang Bang (My baby shot me down_)**

**(Song taken from the KILL BILL soundtrack...)**

The most elite member of the elite fighting squadron-to-be, the Crimson Squad, Nooj. A legend among the Crusaders, a hero... or so I thought. We met when I first became a recorder for Crusader training, though not many people knew it. It was only on a training mission, when he gruffly introduced himself to the new members of the team- Gippal, and Baralai- that we made up the story that we didn't know each other. He was distant at first, not allowing us to talk to him. It was difficult to even get his name out of him. As I was the recorder assigned to their team, I was with him most of the time. I noticed, as others no doubt did, that he was strong, always brave in battle, always put himself in the way of danger to help other, even if he acted cold and black-hearted towards them after the fighting was done.

**Verse 1**

**I was five and he was six**

**We rode on horses made of sticks**

**He wore black and I wore white**

**He would always win the fight**

But he WAS a hero, to his friends at least. I was only a couple of years younger than him... and I was definitely attracted to him. I told him one night... when we were alone together guarding the borders of the Mi'ihen Highroad (recorders had to watch whatever Crimson Squad candidates did), and I just blurted it out without thinking, I expected him to just grunt, to ignore me, but he grabbed me and kissed me passionately. That was the start of a... tempestuous relationship to say the least. The crimson squad training took six months, and Nooj and I were together for five of those months.

All that time, I was living with his constant recklessness. I always blamed him for causing me so much worry, and constantly made him out to be the bad one in the relationship, the devil to my angel. We screamed and yelled at each other, and one or other of us would threaten to walk out. Needless to say, we didn't last. A month before the final selection exercise for the Crimson Squad happened, we split up. He had hurt me so badly, and I hated him for it. He might as well have fired a gun into my heart...

**Chorus 1**

**Bang bang, he shot me down**

**Bang bang, I hit the ground**

**Bang bang, that awful sound**

**Bang bang, my baby shot me down**

But, after I while, realised that... despite everything he had done... I _still _loved him. I told him the night before a training drill. I hoped that he could love me again, too. But... he was too wrapped up in his own concerns to care about me. He told me that I he had concerns that were more important than I or my 'stupid' feelings were. I was heartbroken. Yes, me, Paine, the now cold, uncaring woman with no emotions, heartbroken and in despair...

Then I discovered the truth. He wasn't brave, just... suicidal. I was walking through the Crusaders' camp one night, and overheard two of them talking.

"You serious?" a female voice said.

"Yeah," a male replied, "seems Nooj aint called 'Undying' for no reason."

"But he's really suicidal?" the woman asked, shocked.

"'pparently so. He calls him self 'Nooj the Undying' because he just can't seem to die the way he wants to. I heard... he's looking for a place to die."

"What in Yevon's name..." the woman whispered.

I stood stock-still, unable to believe what I was hearing. Nooj... _suicidal? _It didn't seem possible. But somehow, it all made sense. Whenever fiends rampaged the roads that the Crusader's patrolled, he was always the first one into the fray, always reckless in battle, jumping in front of fiends to block their path. But that recklessness had been seen as courage... and that courage had almost cost him his life at times. Now... I finally understood why.

I had a chance to confront him about it a few days later. I had to do it in front of the other guys, but I thought they had a right to know. Once again, Nooj stepped out in front of a powerful fiend. Ordinarily, recorders weren't supposed to interfere with battles, unless there was a threat to their person. I was sure that the guys could have escaped on their own... but I wasn't so sure that Nooj wanted to. My feelings were still there for him, and I couldn't just let him die.

I threw a blizzara spell at the fiend and killed it. Nooj spun round, glaring at me with fiery, angry eyes.

"How dare you!" he growled at me. I shrank back slightly, afraid of his strength.

"Nooj," I replied, "rumour has it... that you're looking for a place to die."

He merely grunted in reply. I continued:

"You were ready to give up back there- ready to die?"

Gippal suddenly turned, a horrified look on his face.

"You serious?" he asked.

"It's harder than it sounds," Nooj muttered as he started to walk off.

"Na'c caneuic," Gippal whispered to Baralai, who was also staring with bewildered eyes at 'The Undying' Nooj.

"Why?" Baralai asked.

"It's my life to throw away," was all he said, then he started to walk back to camp.

"Hey!" Gippal shouted after him, but he was already gone.

**Verse 2**

**Seasons came and changed the time**

**When I grew up I called him mine**

**He would always laugh and say**

**Remember when we used to play**

**Chorus 2**

**Bang bang, I shot you down**

**Bang bang, you hit the ground**

**Bang bang, that awful sound**

**Bang bang, I used to shoot you down**

When we were alone, he would make cruel jokes to me after that day, about how he used to always win the arguments that we had, that I was too afraid to say what I really wanted to for fear of losing him. I tried to ignore him, but I knew he was right. The only way I could back at him was to join in with the jokes that Gippal and Baralai made about him being a 'Deathseeker.' I knew it was wrong... but how else could I escape the memories of falling to the floor of the tent we had shared, crying and beating the ground with my fists? It was my only weapon against cursed memories. I only pretended to be friends with him because the guys still liked him. I couldn't ask them to choose between myself and Nooj. It simply wasn't fair, so I just acted casual around Nooj, and didn't let things get uncomfortable.

**Verse 3**

**Music played and people sang**

**Just for me the church bells rang**

I also devoted my time to the temple, thinking in desperation that praying to Yevon would heal my soul of the wounds inflicted on me by Nooj. So many nightmarish bullets fired from a single man-shaped gun... I could find no other solution than Yevon. It was my only hope, my only chance at escape.

**Verse 4**

**Now he's gone I dont know why**

**Until this day, sometimes I cry**

**He didn't even say goodbye**

**He didn't take the time to lie**

And then EVERYTHING fell apart. The Crimson Squad was destroyed... and my friends barely escaped from the training exercise with their lives. I followed them after they were shot at by the warrior monks under the command of Maester Kinoc. It was then that I realised that I had been betrayed completely... my Nooj, by the Crusaders... and by Yevon itself. Why had this happened? As I chased after the guys, I had to run through the aftermath of Operation Mi'ihen... I was so scared, terrified that the bodies might belong to either Gippal or Baralai... I didn't even want to find Nooj's body there, no matter how much I hated him.

I eventually found them in front of the Travel Agency on the Mi'ihen Highroad. They watched in amazement as they walked up to me, though they looked miserable, blood stained and tired after their ordeal in the cave in the Mushroom Rock Road.

"Why did you follow us?" Baralai asked.

"I want to know... what is was you saw in there," I replied. My spherecorder was still on, as I wanted to record everything they said.

"Problem is, we don't know," Gippal piped up as he did a back flip to stand up.

"One of these days, we'll find out. Then we'll tell you," Baralai said.

"Well, the Maester isn't going to be happy when he finds out we're still alive," Nooj interjected.

"Yeah, maybe we'd better split up," Gippal replied.

"Your works done," Nooj said to me suddenly, "why are you still recording?" he walked towards me and turned the recorder down. I gasped as he accidentally touched my face. His skin felt... colder... than usual. It was strange, as if it was alien to me, something OTHER than Nooj.

After talking for a while, the guys decided to go in two different directions, so that it would not be so easy for them to be followed. I had the spherecorder on again, to record the last moments that we would all be together. I had to go somewhere else as well, away from my friends... I was miserable at the thought of being alone, and I decided that I HAD to keep at least this small memento.

As sunset drew to a close, Nooj walked away from Gippal and Baralai, in the direction of Luca. I began to turn, to follow the other two. Suddenly a gunshot rattled the air as Baralai fell to the ground, a bleeding hole in his back, Gippal spun round, only to shot as well, a silver bullet embedding itself in his stomach. I turned in the direction of the shots, to find, to my horror... Nooj! Standing there with a gun pointing at my friends.

"Nooj, NO!" I whispered in fright. His only response... was to point his gun at me, and to bury a bullet in my chest.

I don't clearly remember what happened after that. I only remember seeing blurred figures standing above me, and turning my head, seeing that the Gippal and Baralai were no longer there, and trying to scream, but unable to, the bleeding in my chest was so profuse. I was in agony, hating, loving, needing Nooj... but knowing that it was HE who had tried to kill me... he could have succeeded... my blood was pouring fast and thick from the wound... I didn't think I was going to live.

I remember my head swimming, someone pouring a healing potion directly into my wound... and then I passed out.

**Chorus 3**

**Bang bang, he shot me down**

**Bang bang, I hit the ground**

**Bang bang, that awful sound**

**Bang bang, my baby... shot me down**


End file.
